Disclaimer: Adûnaic belongs to Tolkien. All mistakes belong to me.

Story Notes

Languages used in this story: Could that 'forgotten tongue' used at the gates of Minas Tirith be Adûnaic? Some of the Nazgûl came from Númenor. To choose an Adan to be his most loyal servant would certainly suit Sauron's sense of irony. For reasons the story should explain, I have supposed that the Witch-king was not a commoner, but a noble descendant of Elros. The nobles generally took names in Quenya, though it was only a book-language to them - they used Sindarin in daily life. The Witch-king must have known Adûnaic and later Westron. The Nine used the Black Speech in Mordor and presumably among themselves. [5]

At the time the story begins, the Line of Elros lived about 400 years. Other Númenóreans lived about 240 years. The Nine also were afforded a longer lifespan before fading into the living dead. [6, 7]

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[1] 'Their peril is almost entirely due to the unreasoning fear which they inspire.'

(ref The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 210, p 272 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[2] 'we are told that he spares Grima…'

(ref Unfinished Tales, 'The Hunt for the Ring' p 356 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[3] 'Then the Black Captain rose in his stirrups…and the doors tumbled in riven fragments to the ground.'

(ref LOTR, 'ROTK' V. 4. p 810 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[4] The Ring permits him complete control over the Ringwraiths.

'...its wearer could see the thoughts of all those that used the lesser rings, could govern all that they did, and in the end could utterly enslave them.' (ref The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 131, p 152 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[5] Some of the Nazgûl came from Númenor...the nobles generally took names in Quenya...they used Sindarin in daily life. The Witch-king must have known Adûnaic and later Westron. The Nine used the Black Speech in Mordor and presumably among themselves.

(ref The Silmarillion, 'Akallabêth' p 320 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey); (ref LOTR, 'Appendix F', Of Men and Of Other Races pp 1102-1105 pub. Houghton Mifflin); (ref Unfinished Tales, 'Aldarion and Erendis' p 226 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[6] Other Númenóreans lived about 240 years.

(ref Unfinished Tales, 'The Line of Elros: Kings of Númenor' p 228 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[7] The Nine also were afforded a longer lifespan

(ref The Silmarillion 'Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age' p 346 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[8] Thus had he come to Ennor; thus had his companion returned.

Tolkien wrote two essays on Glorfindel - in the second, he placed Glorfindel's return to ME much earlier, before the War of the Elves and Sauron. This is a later work and thus probably more canonical, but for the purposes of this story, I've gone with Tolkien's first idea, that Glorfindel came to ME with Gandalf in the Third Age. The actual dates of Gandalf's arrival and the discovery of evil in Mirkwood (not to mention Sauron's arrival at Dol Guldur) are rather vague, however - I've done my best to select a date that seems reasonable. (ref The Peoples of Middle-Earth, 'Last Writings' p 377 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[9] "…he differed from men as you do from elves"

Glorfindel re-embodied was not an ordinary elf - he was nearly equal to the Maiar in power. (ref The Peoples of Middle-Earth, 'Last Writings' p 381 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[10] Eruhíni

Children of Eru (Q)

[11] "Sauron aims not to destroy, but to control and corrupt."

(ref Morgoth's Ring, 'Myths Transformed' VII (i) pp 364-8 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[12] Ona

'Gram' - this is simply Bad Elvish. Tolkien failed to leave us with words in Quenya or Sindarin for 'Grandmother' and 'Grandfather' (we do have words in Qenya, but they are not easily updated). I used the root ONO-, 'beget' that is the basis of words for parent, but I was really after a word that would sound like a child's nickname for 'Grandmother'. The etymology makes about as much sense as 'Gram' from 'Grandmother'.

[13] "Craban vorn vuio nin si, na nôl dín blabo raifn lín."

"Black crow serve me now, at his head, beat your wings." (S) morn is lenited to vorn as an adjective following its subject; buio is the imperative conjugation of buia-, 'to serve', lenited as a verb following its subject; (n)dôl is lenited to nôl as the object of the preposition na; tín is lenited to dín as an adjectival pronoun following its object; blabo is the imperative conjugation of blab-; raifn is presumably the plural of rafn

[14] "Farn! Enni!"

"Enough! To me!" (S)

[15] "The merchants and privateers hold the Council of the Sceptre."

In the time of Tar-Meneldur, only three members of the Council were of the Line of Elros. Presumably, this continues to hold true in later days. (ref Unfinished Tales, 'Aldarion and Erendis' p 227 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[16] The descendants of Atanalcar

Atanalcar is mentioned once, to my knowledge: in the genealogical table that accompanies 'Aldarion and Erendis'. Here, he is the youngest son of Elros. It is indicated that he had male heirs, though as far as I know, nothing further is said of his line. I figured it was safe to borrow him for my purposes, though he probably would not be pleased to be stuck with the Witch-king as a descendant. (ref Unfinished Tales, 'Aldarion and Erendis' p 221 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[17] khôrí 'nhê

my lady (Ad.) khôrí is derived from khôr, 'lord', with the feminine ending -í; 'n is the common form of an, 'of'; hê is presumably 'me' (see 'Notes on Adûnaic Grammar' for more information and references)

[18] Eruhantalë

Thanksgiving to Eru (Q). This was the fall ceremony of prayer to Eru, a very solemn event. I've imagined that prior to the King's prayer, Númenóreans might have enjoyed a bit of feasting and fun; harvest celebrations are almost universally found across time, place and culture. (ref Unfinished Tales, 'A Description of Númenor' p 174 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[19] "Ki dulg manô!"

"You (are a) black spirit!" Ki is presumably 'you'; Adûnaic does not use a verb for 'to be'; dulg manô appears in the normal form here; dulg is merely a guess at the normal singular for dulgî.

[20] Pûtabas

'Blowwich' (Hobbit Westron) - I've borrowed from Hobbit Westron due to its Dunlandish influence (we have almost no examples of Dunlandish proper). As an early name for Pelargir, it's entirely made up - I've assumed that the native Dunlendings of the region had a fishing port long before the Númenóreans 'founded' Pelargir.

[21] Durbgu dashshu

Lord of the Earth (Black Speech) This comes from David Salo's neo-Black Speech as it appears in The Two Towers. Etymological details may be found at Ryszard Derdzinski's site Fellowship of the Word-smiths, 'Language in the Lord of the Rings Movie'.

[22] "In your blood runs the power of my kind"

It seems logical that Sauron would use the best material available for one destined to be his most powerful servant - a descendant of Elros, and therefore one with a few drops of Maian blood. Though numerous generations have passed at this point, we know that some 6,500 years after Lúthien and Beren lived, Aragorn still has powers attributed to Melian: ' "Here I must put forth all such power and skill as is given to me," he said. "Would that Elrond were here, for he is the eldest of all our race, and has the greater power." ' (ref LOTR, 'ROTK' V. 8. p 845 pub. Houghton Mifflin, also From pointy ears to Grima's tears: Tolkien Investigations, 'Elvish Medicine: The Hands of the King' - URL can be found on my homepage)

[23] "O le echedithon vorguldir veleg, a ti i fuianner le, o le pedithar vi anwar a girithar o goe ir anglennal."

"Of you I shall make a great black sorcerer, and those who have hated you will speak of you in awe, and will shudder in fear of you wherever you go." (S) (lit. "Of you I will make a black sorcerer mighty, and they who abhorred you, of you they will speak in awe and they will shudder from fear when you approach.") echedithon is the future first person of the verb echad-; morguldir is crafted from morgul, 'black arts, sorcery', lenited to vorgul as a direct object, plus dîr, 'man'; beleg is lenited to veleg as an adjective following its object; a ti i fuianner - i in this case has the meaning 'who' (a well-attested Sindarin construction); fuianner is the past third person plural of fuia-; pedithar is the future third person plural of ped-; girithar is the future third person plural of gir-; anglennal is the second person singular of anglenna-.

There is a bit of a pun in morguldir: in Sindarin, gûl means 'sorcery', but in the Black Speech, it refers to 'any one of the major invisible servants of Sauron dominated entirely by his will' (ref A Tolkien Compass p. 172). Incidentally, if Sauron's use of Sindarin troubles the gentle reader, keep in mind that he must have used Sindarin or Quenya in Eregion - regardless of his hatred of the elves and their languages, he was not so rigid that he would not use them at necessity.

[24] Lugbúrz

Barad-dûr (Black Speech)

[25] the essence of their life revealed an Elven fëa

(ref Morgoth's Ring, 'Myths Transformed' VIII, 'Orcs' p 411 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[26] elvellyn

elf-friends (S)

[27] Muindor

brother (S)

[28] Grangulshu

King of the Shadows (Black Speech) This is based partly on David Salo's neo-Black Speech as it appears in 'The Treason of Isengard' on The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. gûl is attested as 'invisible servants of Sauron' (see above), and is used to mean 'shadows' in Salo's translation of the Ring Rhyme (the portion Tolkien did not translate to the Black Speech). shu seems to have the meaning 'of the' as Salo uses it. gran is isolated from golugranu, Elvenkings, and is clearly related to the Common Eldarin stem 3AR-. The -u ending in golugranu appears to be the word u, 'to' that appears in LOTR in Grishnákh's curse. (ref 'TTT', IV, Ch 3 p 435 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[29] Daghburz

Mordor (Black Speech) This comes from David Salo's neo-Black Speech as it appears in 'Treason of Isengard' from The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. Etymological details may be found at Ryszard Derdzinski's site Fellowship of the Word-smiths, 'Language in the Lord of the Rings Movie'.

[30] those most intimately involved in his plans would prove more loyal to him if they served him in devotion and not fear

The Witch-king makes a rather interesting comment to Gandalf at the gates of Minas Tirith: 'This is my hour.' This comment cannot be simply explained as mindless ingestion of Sauron's will - it is clear that the Witch-king does have some will of his own (he simply cannot do anything against the will of Sauron). He does not merely follow orders, but has some leeway in his manner of accomplishing Sauron's goals. This is a wraith who likes his work. (ref LOTR 'ROTK' V. 4. p 811 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[31] Sauron had even a measure of fondness for his acolyte

We have a few orc comments regarding the Nazgûl as evidence for this: 'You ought to know that they're the apple of the Great Eye,' (ref LOTR, 'TTT' III, Ch 3 pp 441-2 pub. Houghton Mifflin); 'But He likes 'em; they're His favourites nowadays so it's no use grumbling.' (ref LOTR, 'TTT' IV, Ch 10 p 720 pub. Houghton Mifflin). Orcs and men could be treacherous; the Ringwraiths could be counted upon to act only in Sauron's interest.

[32] "Pity and Mercy: not to strike without need."

This line is borrowed from Gandalf's words to Frodo in LOTR. (ref 'FOTR' Book I Ch 2 p 58 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

[33] ancient elven citadel

Oropher once held Amon Lanc. (ref Unfinished Tales, 'Disaster of the Gladden Fields' p 293, note 14 pub. Ballantine/Del Rey)

[34] uruk

Warrior orc[s] (Black Speech) The word did not just refer to Saruman's creatures, but also to the elite Mordor orcs. (ref LOTR, 'ROTK' VI, Ch 2 p 910 pub. Houghton Mifflin)

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Notes on Adûnaic Grammar

Kinâkha! Kinâkha! Agannâlun, kinâkha!
Zigûrun urûkhi kiyada.
Kinâkha! Kinâkha! Mânôn 'ndâur, kinâkha!
Idô dulg nûluvô, lôkha pûha 'nki
anâkhi.

Arise! Arise! Death-shadow, arise!
The Wizard, he calls to you.
Arise! Arise! Gloom-spirit, arise!
From blackest night,
come forth your twisted breath.

(Literal Translation)
Be at hand! Be at hand! Death-shadow, be at hand!
The Wizard [he] calls to you.
Be at hand! Be at hand! Spirit of gloom, be at hand!
Now from black [evil] night, crooked breath of you comes.

Kinâkha - ki may be guessed to mean 'you', from bâ kitabdahê, 'don't you touch me!' - the conjugation I have used for the imperative assumes that hê means 'me' and thus the imperative for Class II verbs is identical to the aorist. It appears that nakkha- (a Class I verb) has the same ending in the aorist tense as does dubda-. Obviously, this is theoretical and quite open to argument, but unfortunately, we lack complete verb conjugations in Adûnaic.
Agannâlun - Agannâlu takes the masculine subjective form here as the (presumably masculine) subject of the verb - ki is unnecessary in the verb that follows Agannâlun, but I've retained it for poetic reasons

Zigûrun - attested as the Adûnaic name for Sauron, lit. 'the wizard'; Zigûr takes the masculine subjective form
urûkhi - u is attested as the pronominal prefix for 'he', -hi is attested as the continuative present tense ending for Class I verbs
kiyada - ki is again used as 'you'; -yada is formed from ada, 'to' and the y-glide used between nouns ending in -i and prepositions beginning with vowels. Prepositions in Adûnaic are normally affixed to their object.

Mânôn - Manô takes the masculine subjective form as subject of the verb nâkha
'ndâur - an, 'of' is usually prefixed to its object as 'n-

Idô - îdô is attested as the adverb 'now'
dulg - dulg is presumably the normal singular of dulgî, 'black'. In Adûnaic, the adjective precedes the noun.
nûluvô - nûlu is attested as 'night' [with an evil sense]. ô means 'from'; the v-glide is used between nouns ending in -u and prepositions beginning with vowels
Lôkha - lôkha is presumably the subjective singular of lôkhî
pûha - attested as the noun 'breath'; the subjective form used here is also attested and used for the subject of the noun, 'comes'
'nki - an becomes 'n-, 'of', ki is presumably 'you' [see above] - this genitive construction is the nearest we can form to 'your'

anâkhi - a appears to be the neuter pronominal prefix in batân ayadda, 'road went'; nâkhi is the attested present continuative conjugation of nakkha-

Sources for Adûnaic Grammar: Helge Fauskanger's Ardalambion, 'Adûnaic - the vernacular of Númenor'; Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages, 'Lalaith's Guide to Adûnaic Grammar'; David Salo's translation of 'The Revelation of the Ringwraiths', from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, as analyzed in Ryszard Derdzinski's Fellowship of the Word-smiths, 'Language in the Lord of the Rings Movie'; and of course the original source, J.R.R. Tolkien's Sauron Defeated, 'The Notion Club Papers' and 'The Drowning of Anadûnê'. Where I differ from these sources, it is either a matter of multiple interpretations (Tolkien revised Adûnaic many times, so we have a confused primary text), or a matter of my erroneous understanding. All of the online citations may be found via the address listed as my homepage on my profile at ff net.